I've decided that I want to create a partition on my computer's hard drive that will allowe me to Dual-boot XP and Ubuntu. Unfortuantely, it looks like XP and all of the other data on my main HD is scattered onto it, unpartitioned. I followed the Windows Help instructions about partitioning a drive, and I've gone through countless freeware partition utilities, and was continually confronted with the same result: I can't partition my C: drive for "Security Reasons" because it has Windows System files on it.

Do any of you have any ideas as to how to get past this short of reformatting my drive completely and reinstalling Windows? I've got an older iPod that I don't use much anymore, should I consider reformatting it and putting Ubuntu on it, in which case I could just boot my computer from my iPod to run Linux? Is that even possible? What if I were to buy an external HD (which I'm going to need to for school soon anyway), could I partition that HD with a space for my old Windows files and another for Ubuntu?

Also, I'm having trouble making my computer recognize .iso (disk image) files upon startup; I can never get it to boot from a friggin CD (whether its the internal CD drive or the external USB 2.0 drive). I even encounter this problem when I tell the computer WHERE to look as it's booting, it simply tells me that it cannot boot from the CD drive.

I know its kind of a long-winded post with a few various problems, but any tips are greatly appreciated. Thanks!

Quoting Trav110 (Thread starter):Do any of you have any ideas as to how to get past this short of reformatting my drive completely and reinstalling Windows?

No, sorry. You can try to 'ghost' your C drive into a new one. Google Norton Ghost for a description.

Quoting Trav110 (Thread starter):What if I were to buy an external HD (which I'm going to need to for school soon anyway), could I partition that HD with a space for my old Windows files and another for Ubuntu?

You could do it, but the access speed may be too slow.

Quoting Trav110 (Thread starter):Also, I'm having trouble making my computer recognize .iso (disk image) files upon startup; I can never get it to boot from a friggin CD (whether its the internal CD drive or the external USB 2.0 drive). I even encounter this problem when I tell the computer WHERE to look as it's booting, it simply tells me that it cannot boot from the CD drive.

Iso files are image files of a directory content. They don't contain any bootable executables that you can use.

Quoting Trav110 (Thread starter):I can't partition my C: drive for "Security Reasons" because it has Windows System files on it.

It's been a while since I used it but Partition Magic (formerly PowerQuest, now Norton) did the job for me on several occasions. I just don't know what freeware options there are nor how good/safe they are.

Whatever option you take, back up your data first!

Quoting Trav110 (Thread starter):I can never get it to boot from a friggin CD (whether its the internal CD drive or the external USB 2.0 drive). I even encounter this problem when I tell the computer WHERE to look as it's booting, it simply tells me that it cannot boot from the CD drive

The way to do this is to get 3rd party partition software such as Partition Magic and use it to shrink your current partition. From that you can create a new one using that software or probably the Ubuntu setup allows you to create a partition (however I am not familiar with it so I'm not sure if it does)

Another way is to reinstall XP and in the setup you have the option of deleting the partition (which will erase everything) and create a smaller partition and I'm pretty sure that you can create more than one in the setup before installing XP and then installing XP on one and when that is up an running you can then install Ubuntu on the other.

If you had Vista one of its new features is basic partition managing making dual booting easy.

Quoting Trav110 (Thread starter):Also, I'm having trouble making my computer recognize .iso (disk image) files upon startup; I can never get it to boot from a friggin CD (whether its the internal CD drive or the external USB 2.0 drive). I even encounter this problem when I tell the computer WHERE to look as it's booting, it simply tells me that it cannot boot from the CD drive.

I assume you downloaded the ISO for Ubuntu and put it on a CD as one file, If you did this you have a new coaster. What you have to do is use CD burning software such as Nero or Roxio and there is an option to burn an image.

To do this in Nero follow these steps

1) Load Nero and close the Wizard or Menu that comes up
2) Go to the "Recoreder" tab and find "Burn Image"
3) Find the Ubuntu iso file you downloaded
4) The burn menu should come up and click burn and you should be on your way

If you want to boot from a flash drive or I-pod if it works then you can download ISO buster and use that to extract the files from the ISO and put those files on the drive and see if that works.

Partition Magic will do the trick (I've used it), but as others have mentioned it costs money.

A free option would be to download and burn to CD (using the instructions given by StarAC17) a Knoppix image. Boot from that. It will boot to a Linux desktop right from the CD. Look for a program called QtParted (I can't remember where in the menus it is, but its there somewhere), and use that to resize the Windows partition. That will create the space you need to install Ubuntu.